


Negative Thoughts

by Bellsastuff



Series: Negativity [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 18:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1575098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellsastuff/pseuds/Bellsastuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night after he’d returned from the Negative Zone, he wet his bed.  He’d woken up with a disgusting wet heat in his sheets and winced.  Of course.  Of course this would happen.  He whimpered.</p><p>“This isn’t real.”  He said quietly.  “I’m not at home.  This is just in my mind.  I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be back there.  This isn’t real.”'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Negative Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> (Oh 2007, you were a simpler time. This is a follow up to 'Negative Zone'.)

The night after he’d returned from the Negative Zone, he wet his bed. He’d woken up with a disgusting wet heat in his sheets and winced. Of course. Of course this would happen. He whimpered.

“This isn’t real.” He said quietly. “I’m not at home. This is just in my mind. I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be back there. This isn’t real.”

Billy got out of bed and put his soiled linens and clothes into the washer. The shower had been just warming up when nausea hit and he dove for the toilet. 

His fingers trembled as he spat out the dredges of his puke. He filled a cup with water just as his knees buckled. As he slid down the wall, he questioned this dream. Why was he dreaming about this? His dreams were better than this. He’d never have wet himself or puked in a dream. No, those were reserved for good moments with Teddy, or bonding with his parents, or playing with his brothers.

Unless… it wasn’t a dream. His cup clanked against the tile floor but he didn’t notice. “I’m home.” He said hoarsely. “I’m…. actually home.”

 

Teddy missed hearing Billy’s voice. 

It was silly of him to miss it, seeing as how he was now able to see his boyfriend every day, but he wanted to talk to Billy so badly about the latest issue of the ‘Authority’ or ‘Y the last Man’. He wanted to joke around with his boyfriend and feel like everything was normal again.

But Billy hadn’t spoke since he left prison. He’d choked out a few stunted sentences after being reunited with his family, but since, he’d been mute.

And it hurt Teddy. He was so close to the boy he fell in love with, but he wasn’t quite sure he knew about this aspect of him, dead eyes staring at a world that was suddenly so bleak.

 

He heard them coming and his hands filled with energy, screaming from his hands as he fought to protect his friends-

“BILLY!”

He woke up, but not quickly enough to stop the lightning from leaping out of his hands and towards his little brothers. Thankfully, Rebecca Kaplan had been able to snatch the two out of the way but…

A burnt hole was now in their wall, replacing his mother’s print of one of Van Gogh’s paintings. Billy looked down at his hands, disgust rising in his throat. He’d… he’d been napping. On the couch. 

And he’d woken up as he’d been trying to kill his little brothers, thinking that they were Iron Man.

He continued to stare at his hands, even after his mother came over and gave him one of her firm, loving hugs. He didn’t hear her words of love and comfort, he didn’t feel her hands rubbing up and down his back.

He only saw the hands of a murderer.

 

Billy was slowly becoming terrified of turning into the Scarlet Witch. After M – Day and the destruction of countless innocent souls, for no reason besides grief, he began to understand the delicate balance of the power wielded through his words.

He could stop the world from turning, if he so chose. He could bring Iron Lad back, damned the consequences. He could turn back time and erase the Civil War. He could do anything.

And that scared him to his core. 

His brothers, bickering over the Playstation, could be destroyed in a sentence. His mother, talking to a client, could be gone in a whisper. And Teddy… Teddy could fade into nothing with little more that a sob.

He shoved his fist into his mouth and pleaded with God or whatever was out there to remove this earth shattering power.

No one was listening.

 

The room was white and everything in it was washed out and sallow, as though the room was a florescent bulb, just in another form. Billy stood in the middle of the room, staff in hand and bag around his shoulder. 

“Come out, whatever you are.” He said, voice confident for the first time in a very long time. He stood straight and unafraid and didn’t even flinch when a blue creature appeared, not unlike an octopus gone horribly wrong, with an almost human torso and legs. 

“A witch child daring a demon lord in his own land? You’re quite the impertinent little snot.” He drawled, walking forward with a rolling gait. “You’re in my land, little fool. The Dreamworld is where my powers are the strongest and if I want to feed on the terror of a foolish little boy?” He smirked. “Then you have no way to stop me.” 

“But I do.” Billy answered, eyes hard and filled with a resolve that had long since left him. “I’ve already banished the Shade that you’d sent to feed on my insecurities, and I can easily banish any more that you send. I am the heir to the power of Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch and the changer of worlds, and I defy you. While I recognize that your existence is important to the balance of life, I will not let you feed off of me, Dweller of Darkness.”

The Dweller grinned, though how he could do so without a mouth, Billy did not know. “Even if I stop feeding on your delicious fear, it will not go away. That fear is all your own, I have not contributed to it. You may try to banish my kind all that you wish, but for all of your power, you are still a human, with human terrors and doubt. It would be far easier for you to join with me, witch child. Leave behind the weaknesses that make you feel pain and join with me.” He held out a limb. “Have more power than you thought existed, more than enough to protect the petty creatures that you profess to care about.

Billy slammed his staff down onto the ground and a burst of electricity burst from it, the sheer heat and light filling the room. “I’m afraid to tell you that I’m a little too attached to this life for that kind of trick to work.” He answered, voice amused. “I’d have thought that you’d have a bit more sense than to try a two bit trick like that to get me to switch to your side. Now. I want you to leave me, my family and friends alone.”

Blue energy filled the room with a roaring crackle and Billy woke from his dream with a start, breathing hard. He looked down at his hands, to the power that still rested in his palms, and realized.

“I just banished a demon. I just did the work of the next Sorcerer Supreme.”


End file.
